Links – 2008-11-10

Lost in this celebration, however, has been any serious treatment of the Arab and Muslim question. Obama was ceaselessly and openly pilloried by conservatives as a foreign, exotic, unpredictable quantity, not only because he was of mixed racial heritage, but also because he was wrongly said to be Muslim and Arab. And while the Obama campaign fought firmly and intelligently to overcome voters’ fears about electing an African-American, they rarely took the extra step of condemning the anti-Arab and anti-Ihttp://www.racialicious.com/wp-admin/post-new.phpslamic caterwaul of their opponents’ campaign.

Ralph Nader asks if Obama will be an “Uncle Tom,” gets called out by Fox News. Bint Alshamsa offers video and a bit of commentary.

A lot of people in Levittown needed the five months between the primary election and Tuesday to get used to a new idea. After Mrs. Clinton’s defeat, followed by a financial crisis that shook Americans to the core, they came to terms. If Mr. Obama’s race had been a factor, they eventually had to weigh it against other concerns.

“For a long time, I couldn’t ignore the fact that he was black, if you know what I mean,” Mr. Sinitski, the heating and air-conditioning technician, told me. “I’m not proud of that, but I was raised to think that there aren’t good black people out there. I could see that he was highly intelligent, and that matters to me, but my instinct was still to go with the white guy.”

Mr. Sinitski said what pushed him toward Mr. Obama, more than anything, was McCain’s vice-presidential choice of Mrs. Palin. “She might be a great person, but I had never heard of her before and I couldn’t see how such an unknown should be put one heartbeat from the presidency,” he said, “especially with all the problems we’ve got. I didn’t feel it spoke well for McCain. It didn’t demonstrate intelligence on McCain’s part and it just didn’t reflect well in general on him.”

Today the Religious Right, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and the rest of the right wing Cylons are pleased because their plan to split the African-American community from the GLBT one is working to perfection.

And the counter to it doesn’t start on Rhode Island Ave. The National Black Justice Coalition has been around for several years and with more funding could be an effective counterweight to them,

We also can’t be ignored junior partners you call only when you need some melanin in the picture to prove how inclusive you are. When you’re formulating the strategy, we need to be at the table helping plan and executing it. When we African-American GLBT peeps tell y’all something, quit dismissing it and listen.

The ritual preface of the word black in front of every achievement or breakthrough by an African American is insulting, condescending and minimizes their achievement. It maintains and reinforces the very racial separation that much of America claims it is trying to get past. Dumping the historic burden of race on blacks measures an individual’s success or failure by a group standard. That’s a burden whites don’t have. They succeed or fail solely as individuals.

I’m upset that it did pass. Gay rights is a civil rights issue. I am not surprised that it passed, but that doesn’t stop me from being pissed about it.

I’m also angry about how the LA Times focus in regards to this seems to be just on black people. Just in this wide swath. Why aren’t we divided into different demographics like educated or Christian or blue collar? Why are we not individuals like how white people are viewed as individuals in the LA Times?

Kevin Roderick LA Observed (a long time comrade of people at the LA Times) makes a point to say 70% of the black population voted for Yes on 8 (over and over and over again), but fails to point out that we are six percent of California.

But on the other hand he doesn’t link one blog by an African-American writer (I’m pretty sure that was on purpose), though he does link blogs that talk about African-Americans celebrating, in African-American sections of LA after the Obama win.

If the black issue was such a concern to him then why not at least do that.

(And if the rights of gay people were important to him, why doesn’t he talk about it a little bit more. The time for talk about gay people and their rights was years ago, not two weeks before an election. I talk about equal rights for homosexuals, immigrants, racial minorities and woman all of the time, because I care about people, not because I want to denigrate another group, which sorry Kev, that sort what it looks like here. You don’t seem to care too much about civil rights.)

Race, Culture, and Identity in a Colorstruck World

About This Blog

Racialicious is a blog about the intersection of race and pop culture. Check out our daily updates on the latest celebrity gaffes, our no-holds-barred critique of questionable media representations, and of course, the inevitable Keanu Reeves John Cho newsflashes.

Latoya Peterson (DC) is the Owner and Editor (not the Founder!) of Racialicious, Arturo García (San Diego) is the Managing Editor, Andrea Plaid (NYC) is the Associate Editor. You can email us at team@racialicious.com.